A seasonal thought, from Euromonitor:
"Christmas is becoming less of a celebration lasting days than a spiritual feeling that boosts consumption for over two months a year."
Aaaaah, ain't that sweet.
Showing posts with label consumerism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumerism. Show all posts
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Ethics Ain’t Hip, Apparently
You may be used to losing out, being downgraded and passed over, simply because for ethical reasons you stubbornly refuse to drive a car or indulge in all that glamorous consumerism of convenience. But what is really ironic, is to realise that most so-called environmentalists and right ons are just as easily impressed by the jet-setting, car-driving and consumerist lifestyle as the normal people they often like to sneer at for being “conned”.
And so it seems that that is exactly how Mark Kennedy managed to gain the confidence of many in the activist community, as he burned around Europe doing the environment scene, maan …
“He was a very popular lad at the Sumac Centre …”
“That’s how I remember him – a cool guy with a flash car who dropped off this cool coffee. He got involved with helping anyone with transport, because he was ‘climate’ by trade.”
“Sometimes he’d have jobs on the side and would disappear, but because of the couriering you never really knew where he was. We were under the impression it was all black economy. He’d be like, “don’t worry - I’ll get you a drink next time I see you.” So he was seen as a bit of a geezer.”
Patrick Smith, Veggies, Nottingham, in LeftLion magazine.
So much for being cool!
And so it seems that that is exactly how Mark Kennedy managed to gain the confidence of many in the activist community, as he burned around Europe doing the environment scene, maan …
“He was a very popular lad at the Sumac Centre …”
“That’s how I remember him – a cool guy with a flash car who dropped off this cool coffee. He got involved with helping anyone with transport, because he was ‘climate’ by trade.”
“Sometimes he’d have jobs on the side and would disappear, but because of the couriering you never really knew where he was. We were under the impression it was all black economy. He’d be like, “don’t worry - I’ll get you a drink next time I see you.” So he was seen as a bit of a geezer.”
Patrick Smith, Veggies, Nottingham, in LeftLion magazine.
So much for being cool!
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
It's a Lock-in
The Screeching of Positive Feedback
It shouldn't be a surprise to see chaos in a part of the world where human numbers have been and continue to double in mere decades, and fertile land as well as water for growing food is already insufficient and depleting rapidly. So, amid renewed talk of oil-induced recession, the world seems to be going round in ever more vicious circles:
Lack of investment in agriculture and population increase -> Food price rises -> civil unrest including in oil producing countries -> oil price increases -> food price increases -> more unrest -> and so on and on …
Actionaid USA have produced an interactive map of the places under greatest stress from food import dependency. They note that:
"As a result, [of subsidies] U.S. farmers have diverted 40 percent of corn production from food and feed to fuel, and land once used for soybean production has been converted to corn to meet the demand for biofuels set out in the federal RFS. Seven times as much corn is sent to ethanol plants than is being kept in our national stockpiles. Over the last two years, the amount of corn fed to livestock fell by 3 million metric tons, while corn shipments to ethanol producers grew by 33 million tons. These shifts put pressure on food stocks until they cross a tipping point, driving prices up."
"Spending scarce taxpayer dollars to shift crops from food to biofuels at the expense of hungry people and already stressed resources like soil, water and air is unsustainable."
HT Worldwatch blog.
Stuart Staniford at Early Warning blog points out that, "It's worth noting that the energy content of the human food supply is about a sixth of the energy content of the human fuel supply (about 86 mbd of liquid fuels, equivalent to somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130mbd of ethanol). This is the core problem with converting food to fuel - we are taking from a small pool to try to make up for deficiencies in a large pool, and we will have a much bigger effect on the level of the small pool than the bigger pool."
Wealthy motorists and the private car lobby are literally driving the world into starvation and recession.
It shouldn't be a surprise to see chaos in a part of the world where human numbers have been and continue to double in mere decades, and fertile land as well as water for growing food is already insufficient and depleting rapidly. So, amid renewed talk of oil-induced recession, the world seems to be going round in ever more vicious circles:
Lack of investment in agriculture and population increase -> Food price rises -> civil unrest including in oil producing countries -> oil price increases -> food price increases -> more unrest -> and so on and on …
Actionaid USA have produced an interactive map of the places under greatest stress from food import dependency. They note that:
"As a result, [of subsidies] U.S. farmers have diverted 40 percent of corn production from food and feed to fuel, and land once used for soybean production has been converted to corn to meet the demand for biofuels set out in the federal RFS. Seven times as much corn is sent to ethanol plants than is being kept in our national stockpiles. Over the last two years, the amount of corn fed to livestock fell by 3 million metric tons, while corn shipments to ethanol producers grew by 33 million tons. These shifts put pressure on food stocks until they cross a tipping point, driving prices up."
"Spending scarce taxpayer dollars to shift crops from food to biofuels at the expense of hungry people and already stressed resources like soil, water and air is unsustainable."
HT Worldwatch blog.
Stuart Staniford at Early Warning blog points out that, "It's worth noting that the energy content of the human food supply is about a sixth of the energy content of the human fuel supply (about 86 mbd of liquid fuels, equivalent to somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130mbd of ethanol). This is the core problem with converting food to fuel - we are taking from a small pool to try to make up for deficiencies in a large pool, and we will have a much bigger effect on the level of the small pool than the bigger pool."
Wealthy motorists and the private car lobby are literally driving the world into starvation and recession.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Happy and Docile
How are we all kept in our place? Simple.
1. Consumerism. This brilliant idea was invented following the industrial slaughter of two world wars by Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays. The aim was to sublimate all those nasty wild and unruly human emotions into one single, easily manipulable emotion: greed.
The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis.
2. Built in Obsolescence. This is added insurance. Just in case the lure of consumerism isn’t enough to keep profits flowing in as well, manufacturers ensure that we must keep on buying, by making the things we buy break down and not be able to be repaired easily or cheaply.
Buy and Throw video.
1. Consumerism. This brilliant idea was invented following the industrial slaughter of two world wars by Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays. The aim was to sublimate all those nasty wild and unruly human emotions into one single, easily manipulable emotion: greed.
The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis.
2. Built in Obsolescence. This is added insurance. Just in case the lure of consumerism isn’t enough to keep profits flowing in as well, manufacturers ensure that we must keep on buying, by making the things we buy break down and not be able to be repaired easily or cheaply.
Buy and Throw video.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Christmas By Order
Believe or don't believe, religion is a perennially useful tool and front for whatever it is that you are pushing.
Same old same old.
Here's one:
"Any council that does not keep the word Christmas in the annual celebrations and opts for winter festival, out of the politically-correct appeasement of others to the detriment of our traditions, will have their town visited by the ??? throughout the following year."
"The average cost to the council is £500,000 when the ??? demonstrates at any given location and it is hoped this will be avoided by your council keeping the word Christmas alive."
And here's another:
"Shoppers want to see Christmas lights, Christmas trees, carol services and nativity scenes, and councils should not hesitate in supporting them."
"We should actively celebrate the Christian basis of Christmas, and not allow politically correct Grinches to marginalise Christianity and the importance of the birth of Christ."
"The war on Christmas is over, and the likes of Winterval, [and other alternative names for Christmas festivities] Winter Lights and Luminous deserve to be in the dustbin of history."
Spot the difference.
Same old same old.
Here's one:
"Any council that does not keep the word Christmas in the annual celebrations and opts for winter festival, out of the politically-correct appeasement of others to the detriment of our traditions, will have their town visited by the ??? throughout the following year."
"The average cost to the council is £500,000 when the ??? demonstrates at any given location and it is hoped this will be avoided by your council keeping the word Christmas alive."
And here's another:
"Shoppers want to see Christmas lights, Christmas trees, carol services and nativity scenes, and councils should not hesitate in supporting them."
"We should actively celebrate the Christian basis of Christmas, and not allow politically correct Grinches to marginalise Christianity and the importance of the birth of Christ."
"The war on Christmas is over, and the likes of Winterval, [and other alternative names for Christmas festivities] Winter Lights and Luminous deserve to be in the dustbin of history."
Spot the difference.
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